


The Guest

by dont_need_me



Category: The Aven, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Aliens, F/M, Kid Fic, M/M, Monsters, Mutants, don't forget the angst, scary shit, science fun, there's some for everyone
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-26
Updated: 2015-08-11
Packaged: 2018-04-11 06:35:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 18,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4425143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dont_need_me/pseuds/dont_need_me
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They don't know what it is. There was something too calm-too cool about those eyes for it to be a human child-and it's lack of communication makes matters worse, not to mention the way it effected their emotions and relationships and everything else it could do. Steve had to make a decision. It was down to him. What he did next could end the Avengers. What he did next could cause him to lose Tony. There was no going back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Findings

**Author's Note:**

> It would be great if I could get someone to look over this for me as I write it. If you're interested in being a beta it would be a big help :)

The hulk had been out of control. 

The fight was over, and they were trying to calm him down long enough for Bruce to worm his way back into consciousness and shrink the guy down. It wasn’t working. Their efforts just pissed him off further and Steve was just about to tell Tony to call in the big suit of when it happened. A kid darted out in front of the Hulk, whose fists were up to smash. He could hear the team suck in a collective breath, and was frozen to the spot. The kid-what looked to be a little boy, stood there. Still. His clothes were tattered and dirty, probably from getting caught in the fight, and there was red on one of his shoulders. He stood there, feet spread arms crossed, staring dead at the monster before him. Steve broke out of the trance and shut his eyes for a moment, shaking his head and moving forward, running as fast as he could to get to the kid before The Hulk did something Bruce would regret for the rest of his life. He was within arm's length of the kid, and reached out, planning on grabbing him by the back of his shirt when-

The Hulk shrank, and the boy crumpled. 

This was going to be one hell of a report.  
_____  
Steve sat between the kid and Bruce. Both looked pale and tired. The boy opened his eyes, and an overwhelming sense of fear washed over Steve’s body. His head whipped around, colour drained from his face. The boy just laid there, staring at him wide eyed. Steve swallowed hard and took a deep breath. 

“ Hey buddy. That was a pretty crazy thing you did...I bet you scared your mother and father half to death.” the kid didn’t say anything, but sat up, rubbing the back of his head. His fingers came away red, and when he looked at them he stilled for a moment. Steve could see the fear in his eyes, and sympathized. He was terrified,the fear was clawing at his chest and ran ice cold in his blood and for a second he wondered if the fight wasn’t over-if this was his body telling him to look out, but Natasha had told him she was sure that all of the bots were gone, that it was safe to bring civilians out again.  
“ You alright?” He asked standing, holding a hand out to help the kid up too. He didn’t take it. He stood, brushed himself off and started to walk away. Steve promptly stepped in front of him.  
“ Hold on there, slugger.” He said, bending down a bit. He didn’t want to be intimidating. “ You’re hurt. You should come with me so I can get you to a paramedic.” The boy shook his head slowly and turned again and Steve sighed.  
“ Are you looking for someone?” The kid, again, didn’t say anything, and Steve was starting to wonder if he even spoke English. He grabbed him by the hand, and met no resistance as he directed him to where Clint was getting his wrist wrapped, and sat him down on the back of one of the SHIELD Medical trucks. The boy glowered at him, and Steve felt abrasive anger replace the cold fear, and wondered if the kid knew he was just trying to help.

“ Look at this guy,” Clint said, leaning over and thrusting a thumb in the kid’s direction.” And we thought Tony had a death wi-” Clint was interrupted by Tony landing suddenly behind Steve.  
“What the hell?” Was the first thing Steve heard when the the face plate slid open. “ This kid just runs up the the fu-to the Hulk and you just stand there? What was that all about?” Steve rolled his eyes and huffed.  
“ It was kind of a tense moment. I wasn’t sure what to do.” Tony scoffed. And walked around for a moment. The boy’s eyes tracked his every movement.  
“ You didn’t know what to do? Grab the kid and move! Do you even know what it would do to him? If he found out he killed a kid?” Steve understood Tony’s anger, but Steve was angry enough as it was. He didn’t need this on top of everything else that had happened.  
“Well, he didn’t kill the kid, did he, Stark? Go make sure everyone’s alright. Maybe help with clean up after you've been checked over.” Tony paused, Clint looked between them, face caught between wanting to grab the kid and run and wanting to stay and watch.  
“So I’m Stark now, am I?We’re back to this again? Right. Great.” Tony’s voice was cool and calculating, and Steve just huffed, not even sparing a glance as he heard the suit take off. He looked back down to the kid, who’s shoulder and head were being wrapped.  
“ We’ve got to find your parents.”

“Remind me why we’re keeping it?” Natasha asked, voice low, arms crossed. She glanced quickly over at the child who sat across the meeting room, he was already staring at her.  
“Shield found some... irregularities..” Steve muttered, very aware of Tony glaring at him from across the table. He didn’t know what was wrong with him.  
“Irregularities?” She asked, raising a brow. “ As in?” Steve sighed and bit his lip, the kid was all the way across the room, there was no way he could hear what they were saying-if he understood at all. “Properties in the blood that aren’t exactly... human.” She nodded, then frowned.  
“ How’d they find that out? It’s not like they have a lab in the emergency trucks.” Steve stood, pushing his chair in. Fury had left nearly thirty minutes ago. They were just waiting on some transportation back to the Tower.  
“It looks like his blood has corrosive properties-burned right through a poor agent’s glove and hand-”  
“So he’s a mutant-big whoop. Just take him to Xavier or something.” Steve frowned.Natasha acted apathetic, but he knew her better than that. She’d never just want to dump somebody in need.  
“We don’t know what he is. We’ve got to take him to Shield and get them to do some testing.” He didn’t like the sound of it, and the sense of dread he felt from the thought chilled him. He made to leave, but Tony was the first one out the door, and Steve followed him, frustrated.  
“ Tony, come on, hang back a second, talk to me.” Tony huffed and walked faster.  
“ really Steve, just drop it. Forget it. Everything’s fine.” It was Steve’s turn to huff a laugh.  
“ Obviously everything's not fine, you’re running away from me.” I wasn’t like it was hard for him to keep up, but it still stung. They’d been dating going on two years now. He knew well enough that when Tony got like this there was an explosion to come sooner or later, there was no use in delaying it.  
“ What do you want me to say, Steve? That I’m pissed you didn’t do a damned thing to grab that kid before the hulk had a chance to squash him like a bug? That you just stood there like the big dumb slab of muscle you are?” Tony was more or less yelling now, and Steve could feel the anger boiling under his skin.  
“ I told you before! I did what I could I tr-” He felt a sudden calm washed over him. Apparently Tony did too, because his shoulders slumped and his eyes softened, and the ‘I’m sorry’ was already forming on his lips. Steve looked away, down the hall and saw the kid frozen, squeezing his eyes shut and covering his ears. So he could hear them. The boy stood, blinking, eyes wet, hands clutched close to his chest. Steve saw Bruce’s brow furrowing and Clint’s wide eyes and Natasha’s too relaxed stance.  
“ He’s messing with our emotions.” He said quietly. He had half a thought to be angry-but he literally couldn’t. He wanted to, but the calm was overpowering, it was all surrounding and almost suffocating.  
“ That would explain a lot.” Natasha said quietly, walking forward. It would, it did, it explained more than enough. The boy was looking at them apologetically. He opened his mouth, as if to speak, but before any sound came out he closed it again, eyes falling to the floor.  
“ I-don’t think it’s intentional.” Bruce said tiredly. He walked up to the kid, but he ran to Steve, crossing his arms, Bruce sighed and shook his head-as if he’d expected it to happen.  
“Well, let’s get him to the tower before he starts a riot or something.” Clint said walking forward quickly, taking the kid by the hand and leading him out of the building. the boy walked alongside him willingly, and Steve and Tony traded confused glances.  
“ It might be better that he stays here for test-”  
“ I’m not going to let those jerk scientists poke at a little kid.” Clint interrupted. They were climbing into cars now, before anyone even knew they were out of the building.  
“ What do you think we should do then?” Steve asked, annoyed but in all honesty he agreed with Clint.  
“I can run a few tests.” Bruce said quietly. He looked exhausted. “My bed side manner might be a little less terrifying.” Steve chuckled, and the team rode out most of the rest of the ride in silence. Tony was sat next to him, head bowed. He let his hand rest over Steve’s wrist in silent apology, and Steve smiled at him. It wasn’t his fault. Steve didn’t think it was the kid’s fault either. He may be falling into a trap, but he hardly thought someone so little could have any malicious intent.  
“ So what do we do? This case is scary sensitive. We’ve basically got a ticking bomb over here. He could set the other guy off in a second.” Natasha said, eyes darting between the kid and Bruce. Steve bit his lip.  
“ I can take him.” Clint said quietly, Natasha’s eyes snapped up to meet his. They did the weird spy thing they did, having a whole conversation with their eyes before Clint cleared his throat.  
“ I can take him,” He said more firmly. “ After Bruce finishes the tests.” Steve wasn’t completely sure where the plan was going, but rather than asking he waited for Clint to elaborate.  
“ I’ve got a place. It quiet and relaxing. Plenty of rooms. You guys can come along-ah, except for Bruce, I guess-but I figured you'd want to study the re-”  
“ It’s fine, Clint.” Bruce said with a small smile. “ It’s a good idea. He can’t control himself. Common sense says I stay behind.” Clint nodded and looked to Steve.  
“It’s safe?” he asked, and Clint nodded. Natasha seemed pissed, but when it came to Barton she just about always seemed pissed.  
“ Alright. We’ll go. We need to get a hold of Thor. We could have used him today-if he were here we wouldn’t have needed the Hulk, and we need a way to contact him immediately when he’s off world in case of an emergency.” There was a murmur of agreement, and Steve sat back and relaxed for the first time in twelve hours. It had been a long fight. The kid seemed to be just as tired as they were. His eyes were half shut, and he was leaning heavily into Clint’s side. The cars stopped, and they all filed out, Natasha ended up carrying him. She made an odd face when she lifted him, something sad but controlled. She noticed Steve watching and simply shook her head.  
“ He’s too light.” She muttered, quickly walking into the tower before a single reporter noticed a thing. Once in the common room, the team dispersed to get showers. Steve carefully approached the sleeping boy, shaking his shoulder lightly. Natasha watched him, moving around to a chair to take off her boots.  
“ Hey, uh-” He still hadn't a clue what the kid was even called. “ Hey bud, wake up. You need to get clean..” The kid blinked his eyes open carefully and sat up, moving down on the couch and away from Steve.  
“ I know your shoulder’s hurt. I can help if you want,” There was a moment of fear that grabbed Steve’s breath right out of his chest.  
“ Hey-alright, sorry. It’s fine. Calm down. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. I was just trying to help.” The kid looked at him, then at Natasha. He pointed at her. It was a pretty vague gesture, and Steve wasn’t sure what to do.  
“ That’s Natasha…” he said quietly. the kid nodded, and stared at him, as if waiting for him to say more.  
“ She’s gotta shower too. I’m pretty sure she smells worse than the rest of us.” Natasha sent him a dirty look, but it earned him a small smile from the kid. He looked at her, then stood up and walked the short distance to stand next to her.  
“You’ll take shower, won’t you?” She asked, none different than she’d ask anyone else. The boy nodded, but stared at her still.  
“ You want me to help?” She asked after a moment, and the boy nodded again. Tony laughed, and Steve startled, he hadn't noticed he was still in the room. Natasha stood.  
“Well I’ll take care of Pervo here. You two go get clean. You’re going to press the smell into the couch.”  
_____

Steve was walking out of their bathroom, scrubbing his hair dry the best he could with the set of stitches that were on his shoulder. The medics had gotten a hold of him just before he managed to sneak away into debriefing. He looked up and around the room, his eyes landed on Tony sitting on the bed.  
“I’m surprised you’re not asleep already.” Steve said quietly, going to the dresser for some sweatpants and underwear.  
“I wanted to wait for you,” Tony said tiredly, standing. Steve sighed and put on his clothes.  
“ You know you don’t have to,” he muttered, running a hand through his damp hair, stomach knotting from hunger.  
“I know, but I wanted to apologize-” Steve shook his head and put a hand up, wincing when the movement tugged on the stitches.  
“That wasn’t all you. You couldn’t help how angry you got-that kid doesn’t know how to control himself.” Tony looked down and away, then back up..  
“ Still. What I said was uncalled for and I’m sorry.” Steve sighed and pulled Tony up into a gentle hug, holding him close and closing his eyes.  
“ I’m sorry too.” he murmured. “ I shouldn’t have yelled. “ There it was. It was good to hold him again. It had been a scary, grueling twelve hours. A fight he wouldn’t forget any time soon.  
“You should go eat,” Tony said quietly. “ I don’t want you passing out on me again.” Steve rolled his eyes.  
“ I didn’t pass out, I just got kinda dizzy,” He muttered. With the serum and the metabolism it gave him eating was nearly more important as decontamination showers. He got woozy from time to time after the longer fights, and Tony treated him like he was going to break.  
“ You totally fainted.” Tony wheedled, poking him in the chest. Steve rolled his eyes and pressed a kiss to his temple.  
“ Yeah, sure. Say what you want.” He grabbed Tony by the hand and dragged him to the door.  
“Come on. I’m sure someone’s already ordered something by now.” Tony smiled tiredly, took his hand and tugged him out of the bedroom. 

_____

“So you’re wrong about one thing,” Natasha said, sitting next to the kid at the table. “She’s a girl.” Steve frowned and looked at the kid. He hair was damp and brushed out. There was a new bandage around her head. Her skin was clean, and dark brown eyes stared back at him from a light caramel face.  
“Well, the whole shower situation makes a little more sense now,” Tony said, digging in the refrigerator for the boxes of pasta Clint had ordered before getting in the shower.  
“Yeah. A little too much.” Natasha pulled one of the containers closer to her before Steve could get to it and made two plates, pushing the leftovers back across the counter. They were still mostly warm, only having been in the fridge for a few minutes. They watched the little girl as she ate quickly, short, curly hair falling into her eyes as she hunched over her plate. She ate as if she were starved.  
“ Did she say anything in the shower” Steve asked, eating out of a box, there was no point in using a plate.  
“ No, I think that shoulder is bothering her, though. It took twenty minutes to get her to stay still enough to get the bandage changed.” Steve nodded.  
“ Were going to have to find something eventually. We can’t just keep calling her-well her. And Kid She’s got to have a name.And a family.”  
“ You should also stop talking about her while she’s sitting right there.” Bruce said, walking into the room. The girl looked up at him, brow furrowing slightly. Her eyes looked sad, and the bandages made her look too rough.  
“ What do you think of the situation?” Steve asked, setting down the empty container of pasta and starting on the second.  
“ I think it’s weird.” he answered, pulling out the marked pasta with no meat.  
“ Good weird or bad weird?” Tony asked, mouth half full. Bruce shook his head.  
“ Bad weird.” he answered quietly,he paused for a moment, fork hovering over his meal eyes darting quickly to the girl whose face remained eerily impassive. She was thinking. Steve could see the wheels turning in her head.  
“ I wouldn’t do anything if I were you.” Bruce muttered, shaking his head. “Next time we might not be as lucky.”

\-----------


	2. It's Not Easy Being Green

“And you didn’t tell anybody why?” Tony asked, staring dumbly at the house and the wife and the children that Clint claimed to be his own. Steve had been thinking the same thing, but was too shocked to get any actual words out in the open.

“Safety.” Clint said with a shrug, eyeing the little girl who stood just next to Tony, arms wrapped around herself, shoulders hunched. Her eyes shifted from one person to the next, lingering on Clint's wife and children. Steve felt the needling tang of anxiety under his skin, raising the hairs on the back of his neck. He watched as Natasha absently placed a hand on the girl’s shoulder, and the feeling started to fade.  Steve watched as Clint pulled his daughter aside. No doubt telling here about their...guest. It only took a moment, and the girl came grinning and bouncing up to Natasha, hugging her.

“ Wait, you knew about this?” Tony asked, incredulous.

“I know a lot of things you don’t Stark-despite your misconceptions.” The only way to describe Tony’s expression was a pout, and Steve chuckled under his breath. He watched as Clint’s daughter walked up to the little girl and said hello, and snickered when she just kept talking when she didn’t reply. The poor kid looked almost scared as mini Barton grabbed her hand and started pulling her in the direction of the bedroom.

* * *

 

“ All I’m saying is I haven’t found any missing persons cases or amber alerts that match her description. Not in New York or any surrounding areas. I think It’s safe to say that there isn’t anyone looking for her.” Natasha said, spinning a pink pony toy between her fingers.

“What if she just freaked her family out? There’s been plenty of cases were kids show as mutant and their parents just kick em’-even kids as young as her.” Tony said, leaning forward on the table and trailing his foot up Steve’s leg beneath it. Steve sat up straighter, out of reach, and gave him a pointed look.

“The point is, she can stay here until we know for sure. The tower isn’t really that great a place-”

“ Hey, watch it Barton” Tony muttered, cutting him off.

“A great place for a kid.” Clint finished, rolling his eyes. Steve agreed, but it was all they had.

“Daaaaaaad!” Clint turned around as his daughter came into the room, followed by the girl.

“ Mara says she’s hungry.” Steve raised an eyebrow and looked at Tony, who seemed equally as interested in the new development.

“ Yeah?” He asked, smiling. “ She told you her name?” The girl went around the table and set a bit of paper next to Natasha.

“ Well, she did, but it’s super long and I can’t say it. She said I could call her Mara. We’re best friends.” Tony got up and walked over to..Mara.

“Did she say anything else?” He asked, tapping his fingers absently at his chest. Mara had changed from the too big t-shirt and scrub pants to a red shirt with a small sunflower in the center and a pair of jeans. Clint’s daughter was bigger than she was, but they fit well.

“I’m not allowed to tell you. It’s secret.” Steve tried to ignore the sense of foreboding he felt at the words. They didn’t sound right. Nothing seemed right since this kid- since Mara had been around, and it had only been three days.

“I’m going to go get the kids some dinner. You guys make yourselves at home.” Clint said, taking his daughter by the hand and leading her out of the room. Mara didn’t follow. She looked up at Tony, needing to push a few curls out of her eyes to do so. It nearly seemed like she was going to say something, mouth open, hand raised-but the moment was over as quickly as it had started, and she left through the same door Clint had.

“She shouldn’t stay here.” Natasha said, quietly. Steve turned to her with a frown.

“ You’d rather her go back to the Tower?” There was a slight moment of deliberation, so brief Steve almost thought he hadn’t seen it.

“We don’t know what she is, if she's human or what she's capable of. I’d rather not risk it.” Steve bit his lip.

“ We’ll wait until Bruce calls with results.” Natasha’s lips twitched, but she didn’t say anything else. It was like nothing he did would solve the problem.

* * *

 

They were standing outside the door, listening to the kids talk. They couldn't see anything, and Tony was recording with his phone, standing incredibly still, headphones covering his ears.  Steve swallowed, and leaned a little closer.

“I’ve lived here a long time, where do you live?” there was a pause.

“ All the way out there?” Tony looked at Steve, obviously frustrated. They could only hear one voice, and Steve hoped they could pick up the other in the recording with Tony’s computers back at the tower.

“Why don’t you like him? What did he do?” There was the sound of some toy going off, and Tony and Tony flinched and pulled the headphones off.

“I don’t like going to the doctor either, but they’ve never had to take blood from me.” there was a scraping sound, then a thump.

“No, I don’t know where he is, I’ve never met him.” there was a longer silence this time, and for some reason Steve’s heart was thudding hard in his chest, as if he’d been running for hours.

“My dad and Auntie Nat are good. You can trust them. They’re not gonna hurt you. They’ve never hurt me.” There was a small screech and a giggle, Steve nearly went into the room, he would have if it weren’t for Tony’s hand on his shoulder.

“You can do  that? How? Teach me! I wanna do it too!” there was a lot of laughing after that, and Steve relaxed.

“ What? I don’t think there’s anyone at the door-” Tony shoved his phone in his pocket and Steve backed from the door, but there was no time to walk away. It was already opening. Mara stared at them.

“Hey guys, just checking that everything’s alright.” Steve said, smiling easily. Mara didn’t budge, just stared.

“You should have knocked.” Clint’s daughter said, getting up to stand in front of Mara, almost protective. “ Spying is rude.” The door slammed, and Tony bust out laughing.

“ God, is that what he tells them? How many times have we caught Barton in the damn vents?” Steve shook his head, his smile weak.

“ You got all of that right?” he asked, his shoulder bumping Tony’s as they walked back down the hall.

“ You bet, Steve-o. It’s crazy how you always seem to think my tech is gonna fail us. Never has, never will. You should know that by now.” Steve threw an arm around his shoulders and sighed.

“ Yeah, okay. Sorry for hurting your ego. Send it to Bruce. I’m sure he’ll be interested.” Tony made an annoyed sound, but leaned into him anyway.

“ Already did, Steve. Keep your pants on.” There was a pause, and Steve didn’t say anything, because he knew what was coming.

“ You know actually you don’t have to keep your pants on, I’ll-”

“Yes, he does.” Clint said, opening the bathroom door and stepping into the hall, looking horrified. “ He definitely has to keep his pants on.”

“ Wow, such a party pooper, Barton.” Tony muttered crossing his arms. Steve shoved him a little and left the hall, trying as hard as he could to hide his blush.

* * *

 

They were supposed to be asleep, as far as Steve could tell, Barton’s daughter was-but Mara was sitting up right on the floor, staring at a Stark Pad fitted with a pink fairy case. She wasn’t navigating it, just simply staring, the light from the tablet just barely illuminating her soft features. It was late-exceptionally late, even Tony was asleep. It was near two in the morning, Steve simply just didn’t sleep some nights. The Serum was to blame, and he tried his best, but his sleep schedule remained erratic. He moved away from the door quietly, before she could notice him, and walked out of the hack of the house. He went to the dark barn, hesitating only a moment before climbing a ladder up to the hay loft. The loft doors were already open, and he sat on the thick ledge, looking up at the sky. It was cloudless, and the stars were astounding. There were billions of them, more than he’d ever seen in New York. He wanted to take some dark paper and a white pencil and press them out. He was thinking about how he could make a store run in the morning, buy milk or whatever was needed around the house and get his supplies while he was out when he heard the first noise. He got up slowly, and soundlessly made his way to a dark, cluttered corner of the loft, looking over the railing. There was someone down below, moving around the barn floor. He squinted, but there was a scuffling, and whatever or whoever it was down there was gone. Steve sighed, hating himself for acting so stupid, and moved to sit back down.

“Ah!” he shouted, nearly falling over the side of the railing when he saw Mara standing there, staring at him. She looked at him as he clutched at his chest and squeezed his eyes shut.

“ You can’t do that stuff kid. I could have really hurt you.” She turned away from him, disinterested as she moved to the loft doors, stepping up on the ledge and looking out.

“ Hey-don’t stand on that you’re going to fall…” she ignored him, looking up to the sky. He watched as she stretched out a hand and pointed, then, almost as if she were caressing the sky, curved her hand down, slowly letting it follow the soft swirls of clusters and Milky Way.

“What are you looking at?” Steve was quietly, so as not to scare her off the ledge. She looked at him as he stepped forward and pointed again to a bright point in the sky.

“ Yeah. It’s beautiful. I wish I knew the constellations and stuff. I think Tony knows a few of them.” She nodded and closed her eyes. He held lightly to the back of her shirt, she stiffened, but didn’t open her eyes. He looked up and sighed, hardly noticing when their feet left the ledge.

“What are you doing?” he asked, heart beating fast as the ground below him became smaller, and the Stars became all surrounding. This was new-and really fucking scary, they were too high for him to call out to anyone, he wouldn’t he heard, she could drop him right now and he’d be dead. Just like that. Crushed. The anxiety left him in a whoosh after a moment, the wind was soft, warm and lulling.

 

_I won’t drop you._

Steve wasn’t sure he’d actually heard it, or if he was trying to calm himself, but the voice in his head was far away but sincere. He was struck with a sudden sadness. A longing for home that ripped a hole so deep in his chest, he felt he’d be empty forever.

 ****

* * *

 

“-eve what the literal fuck! I thought you were fucking murdered by freaking paranormal activity kid over there-what are you doing out here?” Steve blinked blearily, taking in Tony’s relieved but angry face.

“ What?” He rasped, sitting up, covered in hay. He was still in the barn. Had he fallen asleep here? What had happened that night, was it a dream?

“ Where? Where’s Mara?” Tony spluttered a curse and stood, running his hand through his hair.

“ In the house.Sleeping. Where you should be. You can’t just disappear like that I didn’t know-” Steve stood slowly, post sleep clumsiness making things difficult. Which was weird. He normally woke right up. It was quite jarring, actually, but now he felt like he was floating.

“ I’m sorry, Tony. I meant to go back in. I guess-I guess I fell asleep.” He looked back to the corner where he’d been laying.

“ What were you doing out here anyway?! Haven’t you ever seen children of the corn? Or any horror movie ever? Barns at night are death traps-” Steve sighed and pulled Tony closer to him.

“ Hey, breathe, alright? I’m sorry. I came up to think for a bit. Look at the stars. It was nice.” Tony didn't say anything, obviously still angry. Steve wrapped his arms around his waist and let his head drop to rest atop of Tony’s, swaying slightly and humming tunelessly.

“ What are you doing?” Tony snapped, still not pulling away.

“ Dancing with you.” Steve murmured, and Tony groaned and sighed, unable to suppress a laugh.

“ You’re a dork.” Tony grumbled. “ And I’m still mad at you.” Steve sighed and stepped away, not before kissing Tony apologetically.

“Alright. A little less mad.” Tony mumbled, looking away. “ But you know. Still kinda pissed.” Steve just smiled and kissed him again.

“You know what? I’m still annoyed you-” Steve didn’t let him finish before kissing him again, smiling when he pulled away. Tony’s eyes were unfocused and he was panting to catch his breath.

“ Still mad?” Steve murmured, smirking.

“You wish.” Tony said, pushing him backwards and turning to go down the ladder that lead to the loft. Steve followed, mind set on breakfast.

* * *

 

Steve kept a closer eye on Mara after the whole floating incident. He didn’t say anything to anyone, still unsure whether or not it had been a dream. Mara didn’t act any different. He was still quiet and still stared at random people at random times.

“She creeps me out,” Tony complained. Steve sighed.

“ She likes watching you work. It’s better than having her stare at a wall or something.” Tony shook her head.

“ They way the Bartlet was talking to her though-”

“Bartlet?” Steve asked, frowning.

“ The little Barton child. Bartlet-get with the program Rogers.” Tony said, and Steve laughed.

“ Anyway, I don’t like it. It just doesn’t sit right.” Steve didn’t say anything, and went back to the task at hand-packing the quinjet for the flight back home.

“ I don’t think she’s really used to people.” Steve said finally. “ maybe that’s why she acts like that.”

“ Yeah, or maybe her name’s really Dominic and she pushed her mother over a third floor banister because she’s the anti Christ.” Steve sighed, exasperated.

“ Is that supposed to mean something?” he asked, latching the compartment he’d just finished packing.

“ I haven’t shown you The Omen yet?” Tony asked, Steve rolled his eyes.

“ Guess not. I’ll add it to the list.” Tony finished the flight plan, and Steve waited for him to walk off the ‘jet first before following. Everyone was just about ready to leave, Clint had given her a bag of clothes from both his son and daughter, stuff that was too small for them but fit her well enough so she wouldn’t have to keep having to wear things she'd borrowed from the team. Everyone was saying their goodbyes, Clint was staying behind with his family for the time being.

“Keep me updated.” he said, waving as the doors shut.

* * *

 

“She’s definitely..something.” Bruce said, finally.

“Something.” Steve repeated, raising a brow.

“It’s hard to explain-” He started, standing and walking across the lab.

“ That’s never stopped you before,” Natasha muttered, and Steve had to hold back a laugh.

“There’s properties here that I can’t even name. Either they’ve mutated so drastically or-” Tony moved from the microscope where he’d been stationed, flipping through sheet after sheet of notes and observations Bruce had done in the past three days. He looked horrible, not unlike Tony when he went on one of his fifty one hour stunts.

“We’ve got to take her to Xavier. Let him feel it out. You know how he is. All bald and wise and powerful and stuff. She stays with us but if he can give us some information I don’t see why it’s not worth a shot.” he set the papers down and looked around the room. “ I mean it’s not like he’s gonna say anything to the press or government.” It was true, Steve knew that.

“ Tony I don’t actually think that’ll be necessary mutatio-” Tony called the magnified shot up again. Steve didn't’ know what he was supposed to be looking at, and from the barely masked confusion on her face neither did Natasha.

“Look, I’m not a bio chemist or doctor, but I’m smart enough to know that cells are not supposed to look like that. We can compare it to-”

“I’ve compared it to the research done already Tony, I know what I’m doing but there’s something wro-” Tony was getting excited, he had the gleam in his eye he got when he was close to solving a problem or finding and answer.

“What else do we need then!? Bruce all we need to do-”

“ Stop cutting me off damn it!” Bruce was breathing hard. A vein in his neck was sticking out, and Tony was stunned into silence. Steve looked at Natasha, who was staring, wide eyed.

“ Bruce-” Steve said quietly. He didn’t know what to do, he was getting green. He was getting green and from Steve’s personal experience he couldn’t really control it once it started.

“Okay-time to go. Tony get out, move-don’t look at me like that go!” Steve was running for the door, skidding to a stop when he saw Mara entering from the other side, the door that was access to Bruce’s personal living space. He saw her. She saw him, then looked at Bruce. She looked at him for a while, just as she had that day in battle, stone faced and determined and Bruce-Bruce was gone, and the other guy was standing there, pissed as ever and  _smashing_.

“ Steve! What the hell are you doing!?” Natasha was screaming at him, he hadn’t heard her. He ran back in, unsure if the fear wrenching his gut to the point of nausea was his or Mara’s. In five steps he had her, in twelve he was out the door, slamming it-shouting for Tony to shut down the floor and more or less throwing the kid to Natasha as they ran up the emergency stairs three stories above Bruce’s lab.

“God-is everyone….is everyone okay?” Steve asked, the last one up the stairs and into the room. It was his old quarters. He looked up to assess everyone for himself. Tony was pale, regretting the last fifteen minutes of his life, but fine. Natasha was still catching her breath, and hating the both of them, running a hand through Mara’s hair-she clung on to Nat hard. The fact that he still felt the need to vomit let him know just how she as doing.

“ We’re fine-Steve you’re bleeding.” Tony said, slowly getting up and walking over to him. He looked himself over and didn't see anything. Tony seemed focused on his forehead.

“ Is it bad?” he asked with a sigh. He didn’t feel anything, that was probably a good sign. Or a bad one..it went both ways.

“ I don’t know. I just turned the resident doctor into a huge green rage monster.” Steve winced as Tony touched a sensitive spot on his head, and moved away from him.

“She didn’t help him.” He said quietly, shaking his head. Was still clutching Natasha, her face was pale and her eyes were wide.

“ She’s not helping him now, either.” Nat said, speaking softly. “ We need to calm her down,” Steve took a deep breath, and nodded, scooting closer to Natasha and patting the girl on the back.

“ You’re alright now.” He said, i was still hard to breath. The fear was almost suffocating. “I got out out of there. I’m sorry for all of that. It had to be scary for you. But you half to calm down. The more frightened you are, the longer he’ll be like that.” it seemed to have some effect, because he could breath, and her knuckled were no longer white on the fabric of Natasha’s shirt.

“That’s better.” she said softly. “We’re going to stay up here until the gas in teh lab works. That will make him sleep, and he’ll be Bruce again. It’s alright, this happens sometimes.” Natasha spoke so quietly that even Steve could barely hear her.

Steve stood, pressing the hem of his t-shirt to his bleeding head and moved to look out the window, needing something else to focus on.

A storm was brewing.

Thor was back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Photo source- https://www.flickr.com/photos/daniel_beresford/11617167984


	3. Perfect Timing

They waited for Thor on the common floor. Mara was once again calm, sitting at the bar table with Tony, watching him work on a Stark Pad. Jarvis let them know that Bruce was knocked out and shrunk back to normal, and Natasha went down to get him off the floor of his lab and into his living quarters. They heard Thor thundering down the hall before they saw him.

“Where is it!?” He bellowed, sounding almost angry. You never could tell with Thor, he shouted just about everything. He came into the main room, hardly acknowledging anyone but to ask the question again.

“Where is the creton?” Mara looked up, then scrambled out of her seat. Steve could barely get a word out before Thor had her by the throat, pressing her high on the wall. Her little feet kicked, and her eyes grew wide as a wave a panic rippled throughout the room.

“You cannot  defer me with your tricks, I am no mortal.”

“ Thor! Put her down-what are you doing!” Steve walked forward quickly, trying to pull him away, but to no avail.

“ Do not interfere, Steven. You will thank me when it is over.” Tony was next to him now, pulling at Thor, trying to help.

“ Drop the kid, meat bag.” he said, voice low and threatening. 

“You do not understand-” Thor started, but there was a pulse, a visible _pulse_ that sent them to the floor. Steve hit his head hard, and cried out. It was already painful enough as it was. His vision was fuzzy, and he looked up to see Mara fall like a rag doll after hovering for only a moment.

“Tony?” He called, sitting up. There was blood coming from his ears. “ Tony, answer me.” There was a whine from the corner of the room, and Steve saw Tony sitting up and rubbing his shoulder.

“ What the everliving-what was that?” Tony asked, Thor stood, face masked with determination. Tony made his way to where Steve stood, stumbling past him to crouch over Mara. Steve hadn't even thought to go to her.

“She’s got a pulse, but it’s kinda skittish.” Tony said. Steve walked over and scooped her up.

“ You must listen to what I say very carefully.” Thor said. “It has been foreseen that this-creature will only bear destruction and death. It must be destroyed, for the sake of the people of Earth.” Tony huffed, and Steve backed from Thor a bit, holding Mara’s head securely in the crook of his arm.

“ Thor, I understand this is how it works on Asgard-but that’s not how we do things here. We’ve got to give her a chance. Fates do change, you know.” Tony made a small sound of amusement, but didn’t say anything. He wasn’t a big believer in fate or the likes. He was a hard driven man of facts and science, but it didn’t hinder their relationship much.

“You do not understand.” Thor said, walking closer to him, Steve could feel Tony tense a little next to him. “That is not a child, that is a power beyond control-if in the wrong hands…” He trailed off, and Steve couldn’t help but think of Loki, as Thor no undoubtedly was.

“ We can’t just kill her for insurance, Thor. But we can watch her, and if it comes down to it, if things start becoming questionable, well do it.” Thor paused, but nodded tersely. Steve sighed and relaxed, but Tony remained tense next to him.

“ I apologize if I have offended,” Thor said with a deep sigh, setting his hammer down on the table. “You humans and your rules-” Steve set Mara down gently on the couch.

“ Yeah, I know. Kinda hard to get accustomed to.” Thor nodded, and eyed Mara warily. He seemed genuinely worried. But if his fear that she was to fall into the wrong hands...well that could be prevented. Nobody wanted to believe a child was capable of any sort of serious, lethal harm. Maybe that’s where they were going wrong.

* * *

“That-I didn’t do that, did I?”Bruce asked quietly, looking at the deep purple bruising around Mara’s neck. She was still out, and Bruce looked anything but well.

“ No, you didn’t.” Steve said, patting him on the back. “ Thor had a bit of a misunderstanding. It’s fine. You didn’t hurt anybody.” Bruce tutted and looked up at Steve, disbelieving.

“That’s why there’s blood all over your head. Yeah, I noticed. You and Tony are next.” he probed lightly at Mara’s neck, then listened to her breathe for a moment.

“I think she was upset with me.” Bruce said. “ It was I can gather. From that recording you sent me.” he sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

“She could have been. That doesn’t mean she can piss you off,” Steve said, shaking his head.

“ Tony pissed me off,” Bruce replied quietly, moving from Mara to Steve, shining a light in his eyes and cleaning the cut on his head. “ I was already stressed.” Steve didn’t believe it, but Bruce was the only one who’d really know.

“He didn’t mean to…” Steve started before he could help himself. It was almost a natural instinct to defend Tony, even though he knew Tony could take care of himself just fine.

“ I know. Don’t worry about it. And you have a concussion, so you’re benched until tomorrow, no matter what.” Steve’s gut twisted nervously, hoping they didn’t get an emergency call. Tony walked into the room, paused, looking almost like a deer caught in headlights. He started to back out, and Bruce didn’t even look away from the stitching he was preparing for the cut on Steve’s head.

“ Get back in here Tony-you’re not gonna go without a check up.” Tony didn’t say anything, but came and sat next to Steve on the couch, lifting Mara’s feet and letting them rest in his lap.

“Bruce, listen,” Tony started, scratching the back of his head.

“ No you listen.,” Bruce said, smirking at the surprised look on Tony’s face. “ We’re taking her to Xavier. I have a hunch that this isn’t just mutation, and the information we get from him will answer that. As soon as she’s awake and well, I suggest we have a visit.” Tony sighed, then smiled, and Steve relaxed, glad he got to work with people who worked so well with each other. He felt even better when Bruce declared that Tony was the only one without a scratch on him, and they settled back to watch some shitty TV while they waited for Mara to wake up.

* * *

They waited a for a day after the whole incident. Mara was back to being quiet and creepy, and for some reason that was a relief. She was practically glued to Tony now, which was funny.

“ What am I supposed to do?” He asked, laying back in their bed, and arm over his eyes.

“What do you mean?” Steve asked, looking up from his sketch paper for only a moment. He’d finally been able to get his hands on some dark paper. He’d been intending to draw out the night sky, but ended up with...whatever had happened with Mara that night. He was still half convinced it was a dream.

“ Are you even listening to me?” Tony asked, annoyed.

“ No, sorry.” Steve said, smiling a little and setting his pencil down. “ What did you say?” Tony rolled over on his stomach to look at him.

“ She just sits there. She doesn’t move, doesn’t say a word, hell she hardly blinks and It’s weird. Am I supposed to talk to her or something? Give her something to do??” He ran a hand through his hair, frowning.

“ I don’t know. She normally just does whatever she wants anyway-it’s not like she’s a normal kid. What does it matter, anyway. I thought you didn’t like kids.” Tony just shrugged and looked up at the ceiling.

“Did you really mean what you said to Thor?” Tony asked quietly, not looking at him.

“ What part?” Steve asked, going back down to his sketch.

“ You said we’d kill her. You really think you could do that?” Steve paused and looked up.

“ Well...yeah. If it-if she becomes a real problem...if she hurts people…” he trailed off, and Tony made a face.

“ She’s a little kid, Steve,” Steve sighed and pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes.

“ Yeah, I know, Tony. But look at what she can do. All I’m saying is, if worse comes to worse I would do it.I would have to.” when he looked up again, Tony was sitting up right.

“ You’re serious,” He half asked half stated, and Steve didn’t get the big deal.

“ Yes, Tony. Why would I be joking? Obviously I’ll do everything I can to prevent it from being the final solution, but if it has to be done it has to be done.” That didn’t seem to be the right thing to say, because Tony didn’t respond. Steve knew how it sounded. Killing a little kid-but Mara _was_ powerful, and they probably didn’t even know that half of it. Even Thor seemed to be afraid of her. She was, apparently, destined to hurt, destined to _destroy_ -but destiny could be changed, couldn’t it? His certainly was.

“Tony, listen.” Steve said quietly, getting up from the chair he’d been in and moving over to the bed. “ I’m not that into the idea either. To be honest she’s kinda grown on me. I really think we can help her. Xavier can help her, but now we’re in some deep water. As soon as Shield finds out what’s going on they’re going to want to take her, and that’s just not an option. So, she’s our responsibility.” He sighed and trailed a hand down Tony’s side. “So that makes us responsible to take her down if things get, bad, if it’s necessary. It’s only fair to her, and fair to the people. We’re keeping this secret….it’s-well…” He was running out of words. Tony still didn’t say anything.

“ I’d want you to do the same for me, if anything ever happens. If I lose it and start hurting people. If it came down to it, that’s what I would want.” Tony stiffened, then sat up.

“ You should stop talking.” He said quietly, pulling on a hoodie. “ I don’t think you know what you’re asking.” Then he left. Just like that. Presumably to go down to the lab and stew, and Steve...well, Steve didn’t blame him. Tony had to be disgusted, disgusted that Steve was even thinking about it.

To be honest, Steve was disgusted with himself.

* * *

**  
  
**

“I don’t know what to tell you,” Xavier said as the doors shut behind Mara. “She’s...unlike anyone I’ve ever come in contact with before.” he said, seemingly intrigued.

“Is she dangerous?” Steve asked, and got a look from Tony, which earned them a look from Natasha, who was forever noticing everything.

“Terribly so, but from what little I saw, I didn’t find any malice.” he paused. “But she is afraid.” he said, looking down at his desk. “That’s just as damning.”

“So you couldn’t get anything? No information no-origin?” Xavier shook his head.

“Unfortunately not. But she’s strong. She won’t relent anything if she’s not willing. She’s very intelligent.” Bruce frowned.

“ I thought you couldn’t hear anything…” He trailed off, pen and paper at the ready.

“ I couldn’t. Well, I couldn’t distinguish anything. There was too much thought happening at once,” Well, that was certainly better than nothing.

“ Though that could just be a defense.”Natasha stepped forward, looking at a few of the bookshelves, thinking. They hadn’t told Mara what they were going to do, or who they were going to see. She had no clue they were more or less bringing her to Xavier to let him root around her brain, but she seemed ready for it anyway.

“Alright-thank you, professor. We appreciate your time.”Steve said, moving forward to shake that man’s hand.

“ The pleasure’s mine, captain, and If I might suggest-” He paused, and looked at the rest of the team.

“ Stop treating her as a danger and more like a child. Chances are you’ll find what you’re looking for.” Steve nodded, and they left. Mara and waiting for them outside the office, arms crossed, the look on her face suggested she was none too pleased by the visit. When they got back to the tower, Tony went straight to the lab, Mara followed. They came out not ten minutes later, Tony with his keys.

“ We’re going out,” he said shortly, passing Steve on the way out to the elevator.

“ Tony do you really think that’s such a-”

“Save it.” Tony said, holding the elevator door open for Mara, who’s walked off to grab her shoes.

“Tony, really-”

“ Just going out for ice cream Steve, not world domination, cool it.” The doors slid shut and Steve made an involuntary noise of frustration, and let his head hit the table.

**  
  
**

Tony and Mara returned three hours later. Steve didn’t know where they’d gone or what they’d been doing, but Mara looked more than exhausted, and promptly fell asleep on the couch next to Natasha. Without barely a nod in his direction, Tony went back down to the lab, and Steve just sat at the bar, silently seething.

“ So,” Natasha said quietly, and obviously there was no escape now.

“ So,” Steve replied, taking a light, metallic blue out if his pencil box, still working on his sketch from the previous night.

“ Don’t make this difficult, Rogers. I don’t feel like waking up the kid.” Steve sighed and set his pencil down.

“Let’s talk somewhere else.” he said, running a hand through his hair.

“I’m pretty sure she can hear us no matter where we go. And I’m comfortable.” There was a comfortable silence between them, and Steve figured he should talk before it got awkward.

“Thor was all set to kill her. Apparently she’s destined to do terrible things.” he fiddled with the hem of his shirt, and Natasha smirked.  

“ Terrible, but great.”

“What?” Steve muttered, looking up, she just frowned and shook her head.

“ Sorry, Tony’s been slacking on movies education…” he simply rolled his eyes and pressed on.

“ I told him no, obviously, but I mean, if things get out of control, if she starts hurting people…” He trailed off, and Natasha seemed to get the jist.

“ I understand. It’s shitty, but I understand.”Steve let out the breath he’d been unaware of holding. He wasn’t trying to turn his team members against him.

“But you can imagine how it sounds, can’t you?” She asked. “You and I know it could be a necessary course of action, but right now we’ll do what we can. Tony and Clint too, most likely, I wouldn’t say anything to him, see it more as killing a little kid.” Steve swallowed.

“ And you don’t?” Natasha sat back. resting her head on the arm of the couch.

“Not if I don’t have to.” Steve nodded, and the conversation seemed to be over. He didn’t feel any better. If they took the professor's advice there was a chance they could get Mara feeling comfortable enough that she'd tell them something-anything. There was always the possibility that they were going about this the wrong way, and that they were just digging themselves into a deeper hole, but the chance to really change something pressed him to take any ideas he could get.

“You’re joking, right?” Clint asked, not a single hint of humor on his face.

“ Really, Barton I’m sorry. I didn't think about it-we were told to treated more like a kid and they’re in town and I thought it would be fun-” Clint grinned, but Steve didn’t trust it.

“ I’m just playing you, it’s fine.” They were seated comfortably in the car. Thor was slouched and ducking, and Mara was sitting on the far side of the car with Tony and Clint, as far away as she could get from both Steve and Thor. They were headed to Cirque du Soleil to have a little fun, and to give Mara the chance to be a little kid. Tony still wasn’t speaking to him.  It was a new record, three days. Normally he’d stop around two. They pulled up to the big tent, and entered. They had front row seats, because Tony was Tony, and they sat, waiting for the show to start. Mara was munching on some popcorn, looking around, watching people as the flooded into the tent and took their seats. Clint seemed a little stiff, and Steve felt bad. This couldn’t be bringing back any great memories.

The show started, and Steve couldn’t help but smile. The music was beautiful, the costumes were vibrant and wonderful, and the dancing was astounding. He looked over at Mara, and was nearly taken aback. She was..smiling. Her mouth was half open, hand frozen just over the popcorn bowl as she took every single sight in, and Steve could feel it, feel the rush of..something exhilarating. It wasn’t quite happiness, and there was an underlying twinge of something like anxiety, and it took him a moment to realize this was awe. After the opening number, the acts started, there were contortionists-the look on Thor’s face at that was priceless, and he was half tempted to remind him of Jane. There were more dancers, there was a woman who stood on a man’s shoulders while he rode a unicycle, it was astounding. And then there were clowns. Steve couldn’t help but tense a little, and he swore he saw Tony muffle a laugh. Asshole. He knew well how Steve felt about them. It didn’t help that they were in the front row either. His stomach dropped when he heard the word ‘volunteer,’ The clowns were combing the first few rows, and stopped in front of Mara.

“ Look at this one!’ It called, pointing to it’s friend. They came together, and Steve just about died. Mara was grinning and getting up to her feet. He saw Natasha quietly tell them she didn’t talk, and then the little girl was dragged up on stage. It stirred something in him, seeing the kid grin like that. She played along with their little skit, and when she came back to sit down it was sit a red nose and a grin that was so much better that the impassive stare he was used to. The show broke for intermission, and Clint stood quickly, claiming he had to use the bathroom, Thor got up for food and Natasha went with him. Steve had no doubt that it wasn’t unintentional that he and Ton were left alone with Mara.

“Steve, I didn’t know about the clowns,” Tony said, Steve could hear the smile in his voice. “ I mean it. You know I wouldn’t do that to you.” Steve huffed, but he couldn’t be angry long. Tony was talking to him again.

“ Yeah, sure.” Tony snorted, unable to keep his laughter at bay.

“ But come on, Steve. You should have seen your face when they walked up here, I thought you were going to piss yourself.” Steve couldn’t help but smile.

“ Yeah, yeah. Laugh it off. You can kill the net spider you find in the workshop.” Tony’s face fell almost instantly and he started to shake his head, and Steve laughed. The lights flashed on and off, and everyone came back to their seats. Mara was sitting on the edge of hers, bouncing a little, excited. The lights finally did go down, and the tight rope walkers came out. They were a marvel, walking backwards and forwards, on their hands and standing on one another’s shoulders. One of them jumped, and didn’t stick the landing, but fell just past the bar and grabbed it last second, making the audience gasp.

“ It’s just a trick,” Clint muttered, rolling his eyes. “ He wasn’t actually going to fall.” They watched as one of the tight rope walkers sat on another’s shoulder, and a third backed up to jump over them. Something was wrong, this time, because the man lost his footing on the roundup to jump. he was falling, and there wasn’t a net below to catch him, and there were screams from the audience as they watched him fall, almost as if it were in slow motion. Steve closed his eyes and waited to hear impact but...it never came. He opened his eyes to see the man floating, just a few inches off the ground, arms over his head. There was a hush. there was hundreds of people in the audience, and one could easily hear a pin drop. The man planted his feet on the ground, and whatever was holding him up must have been gone, because he posed, and the act left the stage.

  
Mara slouched in her seat, no longer smiling.


	4. Tall Tales

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I've gotten into the habit of editing this stuff at two in the morning. That means it's like I didn't edit it at all, so please, if you find any major mistakes, do tell me :)

It was another one of those nights, Steve didn’t see any point in just laying around, so he grabbed his stuff and headed up to the roof, figuring he’d take the time to finish up the sketch he’d started. If he could even call it that anymore. It was more of a full drawing. He paused when he went through the door and somebody was already there. He wasn't too used to his spot being taken, but it was only Mara. It wasn’t as if she made any noise.

“Is this gonna be a thing?” He asked setting up in a clean space at a near by table as a way to announce his presence. Mara didn’t look at him, just leaned up against the railing, looking up at the sky.

“ There’s not much there,” he commented, walking up next to her. “ It’s uh...light pollution. I think that’s the term for it. It blocks out the light of the stars…” He muttered. It was sad, really. Not enough people took the time to look up. Mara sighed, and Steve leaned against the railing himself, squinting up at the inky black sky. All he could really see was the moon and a few brighter stars.

“That was you today, wasn’t it?” He asked quietly, not expecting a response, but he spoke anyway. “You kept that guy from hitting the ground.” Mara didn’t even look at him, but shivered, and pulled her body closer to the rail. Steve took off his jacket and handed it to her, and she considered it for a moment before putting it on.

“That was a good thing you did, you know.” Still silence. “You’re a good kid. I don’t think you’re dangerous….I think you’re scared and that makes you dangerous.” Still nothing in reply. He just wished he could know what was going on in her head.

“ What happened to you, Mara?” Nothing. It was worth a try, though. He sighed and went to sit back down. After a moment, Mara came and sat with him. He slid a blank piece of paper her way, and put his pencil box in the middle of the table.

“ Be easy on the pencils. I don't’ want the tips breaking.” He said quietly, and for a while, the only sounds on the roof was the scratching of pencils. He looked up momentarily to see what Mara was doing, she’d drawn light, swooping lines on the paper, they flared and curled at the end, breaking off into smaller lines that curled at a spiral. It was his turn to choose where they went on the next outing, and Steve got an amazing, idea.

* * *

The planetarium left nothing to be desired. It was huge, positively ginormous. The main room was the size of a small house alone, and in the center a machine projected a hologram of all of Space that man had discovered. In private rooms, you could pull up whatever you wanted to see and study it closer. Mara seemed to be in a trance. She lifted her arm as she had that night in the barn, following the stars and bending with the planets. Steve himself was immersed. He wasn’t all that sure how long he’d been staring at the Andromeda galaxy when Thor quietly poked him on the shoulder. Steve looked at him, and he pointed to one of the viewing rooms. Bruce was already standing at the door, watching as Mara zoomed in and out on star clusters and galaxies with a reverence that was almost worrisome. It was amazing, how quickly she zipped through the cosmos, and when she stopped it was so sudden, Steve was a little dizzy from the speed of the visual. The image she stopped on was breathtaking. Mara stood still, looking at it. Steve felt it again. A longing for home that could have brought him down to his knees. It hurt, god did it hurt. He felt so alone, so isolated and so..vulnerable. He was scared, and it was cold. Mara made a sound, and Steve looked over at her. There were tears on her cheeks. She sat down on the floor, little body shaking and shuddering, and Steve didn’t understand, he thought she’d like this, he thought she’d smile the way she had at the show.

“ It’s a supernova.” Tony said quietly. And Steve looked at him. he looked solemn.

“ A pretty nasty one, too. It must’ve...wow.” The whole team was enthralled by it. They weren’t paying any attention to poor Mara sitting on the floor, legs pulled to her chest, positively sobbing.

“What’s so great about it?” Either the others were choosing to completely ignore the situation, or they honestly didn’t know it was happening.

“ What’s so great about a supernova?” Bruce took a laughing breath, Tony shook his head.

“It’s the grandest final statement in the universe.” Bruce said, and Mara looked up at him, eyes wet and red.

“Not a bad way to go, either.” Tony said softly, stepping forward and rotating an image.

“ That still doesn’t answer my question,” Steve said, standing, and pulling Mara up with him. She wouldn’t look at the image, he could feel her hiccuping as she rested her head on his shoulder.

“Supernova is the final stage in a star's life.” Bruce said, and Tony made a noise.

“ Well you could call it that, but it’s also sorta like the beginning, afterwards everything starts over again.” Bruce nodded, and Steve was just a little lost.

“Anyway, there’s lots of ways it can come about. A normal star-y’know, like the sun, it expands. And then it looses it’s outer shell-that would be the..uh..” Bruce bit his lip in thought.

“The chromosphere.” Tony supplied, and Bruce nodded in thanks.

“So our sun would lose the chromosphere, then expand into a red giant. By that point everyone on earth would be dead.” Mara’s breath hitched, and her eyes turned back to the image.

“Then it would cool off, turn into a white dwarf and be super boring unless it can gain mass and form a binary partner-”Tony was grinning, the damn nerd.

“Boom. An explosion-well, I suppose expulsion is a better word-”

“It is,” tony agreed.

“ A violent expulsion of light and energy, massive. the star is completely obliterated, and so is anything that was too close.” Tony stepped forward and zoomed in on the image.

“But, a few million years after it’s done, that gas particles and matter, the dust cloud-it all starts to compress and form new stars and planets.”

_That was my home._

Steve paled, and looked to Mara, who squirmed to get down. She held tight to his hand, though, and looked up at the image.

_It’s gone._

That made sense. The longing feeling in his chest, her fascination with the stars, everything. It made sense. Steve felt the tears stinging in his eyes, because he knew. He knew the pain, the absolute agony of belonging no where. Of being a variable in a world of constants. Tony helped, Tony kept him rooted, kept him constantly, Tony was the only thing keeping him sane, keeping him from missing home. Mara didn’t have that. She was little, and alone. She couldn’t go home.

“I’m sorry,” Steve said aloud, and everyone seemed to break out of their trance. Mara held his hand tighter.

“ I’m sorry.” He said again, ignoring his team mates as they looked at him in obvious confusion.

* * *

“She talked to you.” Clint muttered, disbelievingly. “ What did she say? Come on, spill it Rogers!” Mara had gone off with Natasha for the night, he Tony, Thor, Bruce and Clint were sat around the kitchen table.

“ She said that she can’t go home.” Steve said quietly, really wishing that he could get drunk. “ She said that supernova we were looking at, it destroyed it. Or I gathered that much at least. You guys didn’t notice her crying?” He asked again, and they all shook their heads.

“ No,” Bruce said quietly, looking guilty. “ No, I didn’t. And then we went-god it must have been terrible. To hear all of that.” Steve scoffed. Tony remained tight lipped, staring down at the table.

“ No shit,” Clint murmured, taking a sip of his beer.

“ So she’s an alien.” He added, looking up at Thor, who seemed more or less clocked out of the conversation.

“ So she’s an alien.” Steve agreed, pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes.

“What do we do now?” Tony asked, sounding tired. Steve rubbed his foot against his ankle under the table and sighed.

“ I don’t know. I’d say we tell Fury, but I don’t trust Shield  at all. And If they piss her off she could do that pulse thing again, and if she hurts anyone they’ll treat her like a criminal, that’ll just make things worse.” The poor kid probably already felt like a prisoner.  There was a hushed murmur, as it was the truth, and it was late and the day had been long.

“ I can’t imagine what it’s like,” Bruce said, looking down at the table, tracing a knot in the wood with his thumbnail.

“Knowing you can never go home? Yeah. It must be heavy. Seeing evidence of it must me worse.” Tony sighed, leaning back in his chair and closing his eyes. Steve didn’t say anything. There was no way they'd ever comprehend what it was like. No was in hell. It’d be better if they all just shut their mouths and stayed sympathetic.

“Steven?” Steve looked up, hearing Thor call his name. They were all staring at him.

“ What?” He asked, more than a little annoyed.

“ You seem troubled.” Thor answered. Steve shrugged and stretched.

“ Nah, just..just tired. Think I’m gonna turn in early tonight. Don't drink too much.” he added, talking to Clint pretty much directly. Tony hadn’t been drunk since they’d gotten together. He had a glass now and again, but it was never that bad, and for that Steve was thankful. He went up to their bedroom with a sigh, moving to his dresser to get changed, standing there for only a moment before he shut the door, locked it, and took the small, fist sized box out of his sock drawer. Inside were photographs. Photographs of him and his mother when he was a child, photos of Bucky, him and Bucky. Him and a few boys from the orphanage. Then there was the commandos. His fingers traced along faces, and he let himself remember. He didn’t do it often, it was too damn sad, but right now it was what he needed. For Tony and the rest of the team, it had been seventy years ago. It had only been two years for him, and the guilt and the loss hung heavy in his chest and stung warm in his eyes.  He heard the elevator ding in the main room, and scuttled to shove the pictures back in the box, and back into the sock and in the drawer before Tony reached the bedroom, the door unlocking just as he touched the knob.

“Hey,” Tony said quietly, plopping down on the bed and scooting close to Steve, laying his head in his lap.

“Hi,” Steve said quietly, not trusting the strength of his voice.

“ Are you alright?” Tony reached up and brushed his hair from his face, and Steve ran his fingers through Tony’s dark locks, pushing them back.

“ Yeah. Peachy.” Steve said with a shrug. “ Just a little tired. Didn’t sleep last night.” Tony hummed and closed his eyes.

“You seem sad.” He admitted, after a small pause.

“I’m fine.” Steve assured, though the tense spot in his chest clenched, and the air around him seemed cold.

“ Liar.” Tony said, opening his eyes.

“....yeah.”Steve nodded, laying back and swallowing. Who was he to deny it. It was harder to lie than it was to tell the truth. And the truth was, some days it was harder. Sometimes the sadness was heavy and deep and he had to do everything he could to distract himself.

“Why? You know you can talk to me,” Tony said, then paused, probably realizing that Steve hadn’t had much of a chance to talk to him at all for the past week, due to all the time he’d spent angry in the lab. Steve didn’t blame him, nor did he want Tony blaming himself.

“Don’t worry about it, Tony.” Steve said, sitting up and kissing him, then pulling the blankets down on the bed so they could get under them. He laid down, settling and Tony moved over into his space, wrapping his arms around him and resting his head on his chest. He laid there a long time, thinking. Steve had fallen asleep just about as soon as his head hit the pillow, but Tony’s mind was buzzing. He remembered hearing something. Maybe in a movie, or maybe he read it in a book-but when he looked at Steve, it was the only thing that came to mind in the moment.

_‘A heart can be broken, but it still beats just the same.’_

* * *

They were all sitting in the main room of the communal floor, Mara was cross legged on the floor, while the rest of them sat up on the couches. They were finally getting their answers, but Steve was the one who had to do all the talking.

“So...why can’t you talk?” Clint asked carefully, as no one else seemed to be starting the questioning.

“ She says that she hasn’t ever needed to. Where she’s from everyone communicates the way she does.” Steve said, Mara didn’t even look up from the big erector set Tony had gotten her. She assembled it so gently, carefully placing the screws and nuts where they needed to be and securing them as if they were fragile. Bruce was both recording and scribbling furiously.

“So the planet you lived on-”

“ It wasn’t a planet. The civilization was built on a dead star.” Steve interrupted, looking just as intrigued as Bruce was.

“ How is that even possible? Those things get cold don’t they? And there’s no atmosphere. It's not even solid.” Tony said, crossing his arms. Mara looked at Steve, and Steve looked back at her.

“ I’m not going to say that,” he muttered, and Mara looked back down at her erector set.

“What did she say?” Bruce asked, sitting forward on the couch.

“ She said that as smart as he thinks he is, Tony’s technology and knowledge is primitive.” Tony scoffed and rolled his eyes.

“ Yeah, because that’s not cliche,” Tony muttered, taking a sip of a drink. Mara moved to lay on her stomach to better see the small holes she had to put the screws through.

“So how did it work? How did you live?” There was silence for a second while Mara focused on what she was doing.

“The Humming Rock.” Steve said. “She says it was a machine that was shot into the star when it was first born. While there, it absorbed the Stars energy, causing it to go through the process of life faster. Once it was a white dwarf, it was solid, and had the Humming Rock as a core. When it was activated, it spit that energy out again really, really slowly, it made like a..a shell. So the star just looked like a simple star, but there were people living on it.Well, in it.” There was silence.

“ Wow.” Tony said, shaking his head. “ That’s...that’s…” He didn’t have anything to say.

“What about gravity?” Bruce asked, flipping to a new page.

“It was stronger than it is here. The rock made it artificially.”Steve literally had no clue what any of what he was saying meant.

“Your people are intelligent, but would not fare well as warriors,” Thor said. “If you have to hide, you must be running from something.”Mara made a face.

“She says a primitive ape like you wouldn’t understand even the basics of strategic warfare.” Steve said, looking away with a snicker.

“ I think that’s enough for one day,” Natasha said. She’d been quiet the whole time, eyes trained on Mara’s face.

“ I’ve still got questions,” Tony said, and Bruce nodded, wide eyed in agreement.

“ Ask them tomorrow. “ Nat said, shrugging. Steve relaxed back into the chair with a huff. He hadn’t realized he’d been so tense. He’d been focusing on listening to everything the little girl said.

Tony and Bruce left the room, mumbling about science and what they thought of the things they'd been told.

“There’s no way we can tell Shield now,” Natasha said, looking between Clint and Steve. “That kind of technology is unattainable for the foreseeable future,and for good reason. think of what’ll happen if they get a hint of any of this…” Steve shook his head.

“Xavier said she won't say anything she doesn’t want to.” said said, Clint shifted in his seat, uncomfortable. .

“ So are you saying we should tell Shield?”he asked, and  Steve bit his lip.

“ Well, no, not exactly.” Clint crossed his arms, and Natasha looked at him bemusedly.

“ Then what are you saying, exactly?” Steve didn’t know what he was saying. He didn’t have a clue what to do, and he had this kid, and his team all looking up at him because he was supposed to. It was his job, and he was failing.

“We just keep doing what we’ve been doing.” Steve said finally. “We’ll figure something out eventually.”

Hopefully.

* * *

 

“Why won’t you talk to anyone else?” Steve asked, looking out at the city below. “ You know you can trust them.” he did. He trusted them with everything. Mara was throwing little bits of bread over the balcony. **  
**

_I do. But you understand._

“Understand what?” he figured if they were anywhere else but where they where he’d sound crazy.

_Everything._ Steve laughed.

“ I wouldn’t go that far.” Mara sighed and sat down. She put her legs though the bars of the railing, and they dangled. It was quiet for a moment, and Steve sighed.

“It must have been quiet there. Back where you’re from. It must have been nice.”

_It was. It was beautiful. You could see anything. All of space, as far as you could see._

She sounded sad. Steve wished there was something he could do.

“Can you talk? like with your voice? It’s something you could learn, I think. “ Mara shrugged.

_I could. I just don’t know how. I know all the sounds, just not how to make them._

Steve pondered a moment, figuring he should probably go back to bed and at least try to sleep like a normal person, but the thought of Mara up on the roof alone was worrisome enough to keep him rooted to the spot.

“ How old are you?” he asked, zipping his jacket up tighter. He’d love to say that the serum made it easier to stand the cold, and before, it had. But then the plane crashed, and he spent seventy years in that ice...he hadn’t actually been warm since.

_Time and age is your thing. A human thing. I like it, have you ever thought that maybe if you stopped measuring it, it’ll stop passing?_

Steve smiled. Insightful. Xavier wasn’t lying when he’d said she was intelligent, but he hadn’t really thought he meant the kid was a philosopher.  

“ I don’t think it works that way. I’m pretty sure everything has an end.” He was positive, really. Out of anyone in the world, Steve Rogers was more aware of the inevitable end than just about anyone could be.

_Or nothing has an end. Except I suppose, your  idea of time._

Steve frowned and shook his head. The kid was weird. It made sense that she was an alien. Tony had thought she was in league with the devil, so at least they knew the truth and  he wouldn’t have to sit through another horror movie. Hopefully.

“ What about your star?" Steve asked, without really thinking. “Supernova, right? That’s the end of a star’s life.” Mara looked hesitant, but then looked up at him. He sat then, so she didn’t have to crane her neck.

_Energy can be made, but never destroyed. My home was the epitome of energy. It still is, the dust cloud the event left behind is still hot, particles of dust and matter are clumping together making  new stars as we speak._

“So what does that mean for us?” Steve asked. “ For people? What happens when people die?” His stomach knotted, and his throat was tight.

_I like to think that it’s the same as a star. I’ve seen a lot of death._

Steve gave a wet laugh, and shook his head.

“ Tell me about it. That’s nice, though. That’s...that helps.” He swallowed thickly, not wanting to cry-

_Soldiers are allowed to cry, you know. There’s no shame. I do it all the time._

* * *

“I was supposed to protect it. I was supposed to keep the rebels away, and I failed. I got scared, because they’d taken down everyone else. I was the last one. I was still training. I hadn’t learned to use my full potential-still haven’t. I’m still weak.“ Mara paused for breath, the whole idea and concept of speaking was difficult, she was still working on the dynamics. “I-my people, we’re not all the same. Some of us are born with every ability there is to have, it has something to do with the brain-I-I don’t know the science of it, but I do know that it’s terrible. Training starts right away. You’d hate to see it, babies plugged into machines, set into monitor capsules. From then on it’s test after test after test…” She looked up. “And that’s it. We pass tests, and we go and defend the Humming Stone.” Steve felt almost bad, making her talk.  Tony was sat next to him, and looked down at his hands, then at Natasha. Thor was uncharacteristically quiet as well.

“ That can’t be all.” Bruce said quietly, softly. “ You said something about Rebels...what were they rebelling?Was there war?” Mara swallowed, but looked away.

“There’s always war. But this isn't...this wasn't war. No distinguished sides, no cause to fight-unless you count bitterness. They were just rebelling. They’d gone wrong in the head. Or so we were told, at least. I’m not stupid though. Most of them were dead scans.” there was a pause.

“ Dead scans?” Natasha asked, looking...sad. 

“Ones who showed up with nothing. Who are just as normal as you-well, I’d expect they’re smarter-evolution and all, and..well they’d made..things. That disabled us. That wild tear our brains apart. Like needles, so they could get past us.”

“They tore at children's heads?” Thor asked, looking horrified. Mara shrugged.

“We’re not all that young. I don’t know what calculations I’d have to do, but if I use your concept of time I figure I’m just as old as the rest of you.”Mara muttered, and  Tony snickered in disbelief. 

“So was I, when I was as small as you.”Thor said softly, Steve almost didn’t hear him. Mara frowned, then nodded. It was a sad thing to see, the kid just..accepted it. Accepted the fact that she was a child, and she’d been fighting a war that was set to kill her.

“The rebels just wanted everything gone. Dead. They believe that there is... was nothing. That the vastness of space was just big and black and hopeless, so they chose to die, but wanted everybody else to die too. So they started attacking the Humming Stones.”

“Stones? There was more than one?” Clint asked, his face a dark shadow. Mara smiled.

“ There were many. Hundreds. They’ve all been attacked and destroyed, though…” She said shaking her head.

“Why’d they go after the Humming Stone?” Tony asked, scratching the back of his neck.

“What if I put a... a hundred billion nuclear bombs in the core of the earth. What would that energy do?” Bruce looked sad just at the thought.

“Supernova,” He said quietly. “It’d..It’d be like a supernova.” Mara smiled sadly, and rested her head on the table.

“How long has it been since you actually slept?” Steve asked, and Tony huffed a sigh next to him, most likely glad he wasn’t the one being questioned.

“A long time.” It was the one thing that amazed her. She’d assumed that somewhere it should have changed, or perhaps it was a constant of the universe. Things had to sleep. To let themselves become vulnerable and still. It was a flaw that could be fatal, but the smooth darkness could be so warm and inviting. She could almost half understand why the Rebels thought what they did-but their darkness was cold, and it hurt. That wasn’t anything like it should be.

“Maybe you should turn in. It’s probably been exhausting for you to do all of that taking-y’know, since you just did it for the first time and all. Tony and Bruce are going the have to get used to another genius hanging around.” Steve said, and grinned as Tony groaned and thunked his head down on the table, and Bruce laughed.

This was better. this was his team.

* * *

Later that night, after everyone had been in bed and breathing deeply for a good three hours, Mara got up. Natasha was sharp, she slept in the room across from her, and she had to hover to the elevator, so as not to be heard. She went up to the roof, and waited, then looked to the moon.

_Mara’lsftasan’Lorer: Reporting to Rebel clan Delta five. Taking earth will not be easy. The inhabitants are primitive and dull, but it is protected. I have learned more since I last reported, and I will compose and link a lobaldocument  to the General as soon as I have time to do so._

she waited for a moment, face blank, body tense.

**  
Good. You’re keeping the operation ahead of schedule, solider. You will be rewarded.**


	5. Shock

“What are you doing?” The voice was so sudden and so close, Mara jumped back and over the railing, just barely catching and holding herself in mid air. Natasha was standing on the deck, arms crossed. Mara could tell from the look in her eyes that she was in trouble.

“You can’t scare me like that.” She said after a moment, moving forward and back over to the railing. Mara landed softly and rubbed the back of her head. “ I could have hurt you.” It was the last thing she wanted to do.

“Really?” Natasha asked, arms unfolding. Mara could see the tension in her neck and shoulders, as if she were ready to spring forward at any given moment.

“ Uh, yeah...really.” Mara said, for lack of anything else.

“Who were you talking to?” Damn.

“No one. Just myself.” She knew she was in trouble here. Natasha already knew she was lying, and now everything was going to go wrong and she was going to die and so was everyone else.

“You have about five seconds to tell the truth.”

“You don’t understand-”

“ I don’t need to understand. I need the truth. Talk.” Mara’s heart was beating too fast, and she tried to clear her mind, tried to think of something else.

“ I can’t. you don’t understand, I can’t I can’t even think about it, I’ll be-how’d you even know I got up?” She asked, trying to change the subject.

“I wasn’t asleep.” Natasha seemed to be getting fed up, and Mara bit her lip. If she told, she’d be punished, that was the last thing she wanted.

“I don’t want anybody to be hurt-I don't agree with-I don’t want any of this it’s not my idea of prosperity it’s not fair-”

“What’s not fair?” Natasha asked, stepping closer to the girl, making her flinch.  

“If I say anything else I’m going to be in trouble, big trouble. I’m already at their mercy.” There was silence, and Mara looked around, shivering.

“I’m-all the others who were like me are dead. The rebels killed them. Since I was the last one, they took me and kept me as prisoner, they want me to be their weapon. They’ve got weapons of their own, so they can talk to me and I can talk to them through an implant they put in my head. They hear everything I say and hear and see everything I see.” Mara swallowed hard, waiting for it. It would come any moment now, her punishment. They might even kill her. “They want earth. They want to take it.” Natasha looked pale and Mara was close to crying. “This isn’t what I was supposed to be.” She said quietly, falling to her knees. “ I was supposed to help, I was supposed to protect.” Mara wiped at her eyes, and Natasha hauled her up by her arm and pulled her close.

“I know.” She said quietly, stroking Mara’s hair. “I know. But you told me, and that helps. That’s going to protect people here. There is such a thing as redemption, though. You might have to stick around and help for a while…”

“I will,” Mara said, wiping at her eyes, walking to the door to the roof access stairwell. It was too cold. “I’ll stay. I’ll help. Maybe they won’t come at all. I could tell them it’s a bust…” it was too late for that, she knew it. She’d proposed the idea of just asking the inhabitants of earth to let them join, the Rebels were similar, even more so since they weren’t in anyway advanced or enhanced, but the Rebels seemed to be addicted to violence and thirsted for death. They’d been hanging in dead space for too long. They wanted to get something with a pulse in their hands. Once they did, it’s be gone within the century.  

* * *

 

It was a pretty typical breakfast. Steve woke up half hour after Bruce did, and helped make eggs bacon and pancakes. As the food cooked, the team meandered in. Clint was the last to get to the kitchen, still trying to recover from the visit with his family. When Maria came in, she was sluggish and pale. Steve watched her out of the corner of his eye when she sat down. Natasha’s  rapt attention didn’t go unnoticed either. Her eyes hadn’t moved from the kid since the second she walked into the room.

“ You alright, kid?” Steve asked, sliding a plate over to her. Mara took it and pulled it closer.

“ Y-yeah. I’m fine.” She muttered, but a full body twitch shook her body, seemingly involuntary. She grabbed her fork, and her body twitched again, making it clatter to the ground.

“ You sure? You’re lookin’ a little rough…” Clint muttered, pushing his scrambled eggs around in the pool of syrup his pancakes had left behind.

“I’m okay. Just tired. I didn’t sleep last night.” She went to take a bite, but her hand was shaking. Mara put the fork down before anyone could notice and sighed. They’d found out. They’d been shocking her since she’d gotten to her bedroom after what she’d said on the roof. It was nearly unbearable. Her head and face felt numb, and her body ached from her muscles being tensed so tightly. She jerked again, nearly falling out of her chair-the shocks were gaining in voltage. Getting longer. By now, they were all looking at her, backing away a little. That was good. Her body would start trying to protect itself, it didn’t understand what was hurting her was on the inside, and if she lost concentration for a second all hell would break loose in the tower.

“I uh, I suggest you leave Doctor Banner.” She muttered knuckles white on the arm of her chair.

“ What’s going on? Why does he need to leave?” Steve asked, moving closer to her, reaching out

“ Don’t-I don’t-ah-know what they’re running through me, if you touch me it could kill you.” She squeezed her eyes shut as her body spasmed for a full three seconds.

“Who’s they?” Clint asked, but she couldn’t answer, she had to focus. “ Mara, who’s they? What are you talking about?”  Mara opened her mouth to answer, but she was cut off, a low, painful moan escaped her throat, and she fell to the floor, body spasming, limbs thrashing. There was nothing that could be done, Steve watched in horror as the kid had some sort of fit, It lasted for what seemed like forever.

When it stopped, it had been three minutes.

“What’s going on?” Tony asked. Clint bent down next to her and put his ear to her chest. Steve held his breath when he touched her, afraid of what might happen-it could be anything.

“She’s breathing. Her heart's beating pretty quickly. Dunno if that’s a bad thing or not.” Bruce had come back into the room, the doctor in him trumping the fear of The Other guy getting out without his permission.

“Could have been a seizure.” He muttered, pulling his keys from his pockets and using the flashlight on his keychain to check Mara’s eyes.

“Sure as hell looked like one-but she was twitching before, you saw it.” Steve said, stepping a little closer.

“That could have been part of the episode.” Bruce said, taking her wrist in his hand and counting her pulse.

“Yeah, no way. She said ‘they’ were doing something to her. I dunno what the hell is going on, but there’s something she’s not telling us.” Tony said, arms crossed.  He looked over at Natasha, who hadn’t moved from her seat. “ You don’t seem all that bothered. Something you wanna tell us?”

* * *

**  
  
**

“So she lied.” Steve said curtly, jaw set.

“Not really. She just didn’t tell the whole story. She’s a worm, I’ll give her that.” Natasha said, scraping a nail on the table.

“ So...she told you all this. That these rebels are controlling her and that they want to colonize?” Bruce asked, Natasha nodded.

“They don’t seem to be set on being peaceful either. I made her tell me. She’s getting punished for it.” Natasha sighed, and scrubbed her face with her hands.

“ I’m glad you did. It’s nice to know we got a ship full of crazy people hiding in the solar system.” Steve muttered.  

“It seems the only superiority these people have is weaponry, I’m sure they can be beaten with numbers.” Thor said, smirking.

“But we don’t know what their weapons do-and from the looks of Mara it's nothing to be taken lightly.”Bruce said.Steve looked to Tony, who’d been uncharacteristically quiet.

“ What are you thinking?”

“That I hate aliens.” Tony muttered, running a hand through his hair. “We’ve got to tell Sheild now, there’s nothing else we can do.” A hush fell over the room, Mara started twitching again. It was hard to watch, she was so small…

“How much time do you think we have?” Clint asked. “Maybe we could figure something out. Some sort of defense plan.”

“Not much. Now that the Rebels know we know, they’ll be less inclined to wait around and leech information from Mara.” Natasha muttered.”They’ve got the upper hand.”

“You could blow them up.” Mara said weakly, sitting up. “Give them a taste of their own medicine.” She shuddered, and Steve knelt next to her.

“Do you know where they are?”

“They can’t hide from me. The plant they put in my head works both ways, unfortunately for them. I know where they are all the time.” The tension in the room melted a little, and Steve let out a sigh of relief.

“Is it really that simple?” Bruce asked, frowning. “It’s can't be…”

“It’s not,” Mara answered. “ But it’s the best way to eliminate them completely.” She put a hand to her head and closer her eyes, obviously in pain.

“What does that mean for you?” Clint asked. “You said they were the last of your people.”

“ They’re not my people. They’re blood thirsty creatures. I don’t want anything to do with them.” She stood up carefully. Her hair was sticking up on it’s ends.

“So I guess that settles it then.” Steve said, crossing his arms. “We blow up the ship. You’ve just got to walk us through how.”

“I’ll need him. And Bruce.” She said, pointing to Tony. “That thing you’ve got-the thing in your chest, the magnet. If you can make one big enough to generate enough power and shoot it into space, that might be all that needs to be done. I’ll need to make some modifications, obviously, so none of the surrounding planets or stars or asteroids aren't affected, but the pulled from an electromagnetic explosion would offset everything, turn all the machines off, including the one that regulates how much power is being pumped through the ship. That’ll blow it up.” She was met with silence, and was unsure if it was a good one or a bad one.

“How long is this going to take?” Tony asked, looking pale.

“Quite a while if you ask a bunch of questions like that.” there was no time to spare.

“How do we know you’re not lying to us?” Steve asked, raising a brow. “How do we know this thing you want to make won’t do something else?”

“You don’t.” Mara said. “You’ve just gotta trust me.”


	6. Redemption

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Trigger Warning* Mention of suicide.

“Okay, let’s get to this. What exactly do you have in mind?” Tony asked, sitting down with Mara and Bruce in the lab, opening his design program.

“I already told you.” Mara muttered, sitting on the table and looking up at the ceiling.” Just a huge arc reactor thing to blast up into space. It’ll have to have a shell and a hull. You’ll have to make it look like something harmless, like a shuttle or something, but it also needs to be maneuverable by remote control. That shouldn’t be too hard on you, from what I’ve seen” She looked around. Her eyes fell on the bar in the back of the room, and she frowned at Tony.

“I don’t drink anymore.” He muttered, starting to draw something up.

“ Coulda fooled me,” Mara said, resting her chin on her palm.

“ He doesn’t.” Bruce assured, looking over Tony’s work.

“What’s that there for then?” She asked, scooting closer to Tony’s so she didn’t have to crane her neck.

“Guests. Looks. Laziness. You can pick.” Mara snorted and put a hand out.

“Hang on a second. If you can forget about the cylindrical design and look into hexagonal. it’ll deliver a more central pulse of energy when it goes boom.” Mara said, her head falling into her arms.

“Yeah? How so?” Bruce asked, looking skeptical.

“First of all, a hexagonal shape with a curved lip will help with launch, sorta like a plate or a disc  or something. It has everything to do with surface tension and blah blah blah I only went to school for three days-what do you expect from me?” Mara ran a hand through her hair, a tell tale sign of frustration. Now that she didn’t project her emotions out on all the rest of them, they had to just guess what she was feeling. She never told anyone anything about herself, anyway. All she ever talked about was her people, aside from her job as a solider.

“Why’d you only go for three days?” Bruce asked, frowning.

“Because I hated it. I wanted to focus more on my training. Besides, it was recommended that I didn’t go at all. It was a distraction from my job and my job was the most important thing there was. Besides, I know a lot of things already.” Tony looked away from his diagram, which Mara reached out and tweaked. That made him smile, despite himself. She looked like she belonged where she was. In the lab, in front of a holographic diagram.

“You could always go to school here. You might be at a high school or college level but...you know. Since you have more time.” He cut himself short of saying ‘because you don’t have a job anymore,’ Bruce looked at him, mouthed ‘good idea’ and looked back to the diagram.

“I can hear your thoughts, you know. Especially when you’re going to talk to another person. I even know what you’re going to say before you’re going to say it.” She muttered. “But I can’t hear the personal commentary, thank _god_. I bet you never shut up.” She said looking in between Bruce and Tony.

“Wow. Rude.” Tony grumbled and was even the slightest bit embarrassed, but Bruce seemed intrigued.

“ What’s the difference?” Bruce asked, Mara wasn't paying attention, but was expanding the diagram to get a 3D look at to model, making changes here and there, muttering, presumably to Tony or to Jarvis or herself.

“What’s the difference between what?” She asked after a moment, looking up. Bruce was struck with how young she looked. She couldn't be any older than nine or ten, at least equivalently. According to Thor she may have lived anywhere from twenty to forty earth years.

“The inner monologue and the things we choose to say to people. Why can you hear one but not the other?”

“Because,” Mara said, rolling her eyes. “You choose to share certain thoughts with people before you’ve really even formed them. Like a conversation. You think of what you say as you say it. It’s something to put forward, to share. Your thoughts, however, are yours and only yours. They can’t be shared unless you’ve chosen to have that bond with a person. Like you and Steve, Tony. You guys would hear thoughts and feel each others emotions and pain and stuff. It happens between good friends too, sometimes siblings.” Tony nodded, having stopped working, Bruce had done the same, but Mara was still walking around the diagram and tweaking and adding measurements and quantities that Tony hadn’t thought of.

“You should write all this stuff down for me. Like a book.” Bruce said, and Mara laughed.

“Yeah might as well.” She sounded sad and looked tired.

“I think we should pack it up for the night.” Bruce muttered, standing and scratching the back of his head. Tony and Mara looked at him with similar amusement.

“Yeah. Alright.” Tony said in a tone that just about assured he wasn't going to be leaving the lab any time soon.

“You know titanium alloy isn’t going to work, right?” Mara said, frowning.

“Yes it will, it already has.” Tony muttered, not looking away from the diagram.

“ What? Those big clunky int cans you guys call space ships? Funny. That stuff doesn’t work, it just sort of holds. You need something more durable.” Tony paused and looked at her.

“I’ve got an idea.”

* * *

****  
  


Things were going well. At least Tony said they were, Steve couldn’t understand one thing he and Mara talked about, even remotely. It wasn’t like they came up from the lab much anyway, it had been nearly a week and he’d barely seen any of either of them. Judging from the grease stains, sear marks and the smell, they were well into building whatever was going to get the Rebels out of the way.

“No,” Steve said, looking up from a book when Tony came into their bedroom for the first time in about three days. “Go take a shower. You smell terrible.” Tony just sighed and didn’t say a word, shoulders slouching as he grabbed some clean clothes and made his way to the bathroom that was connected to their bedroom. Steve got up to make something to eat while he waited, it was two in the morning and it didn’t look like a sleep night for him, but he figured Tony could use a meal too. He was surprised to see Natasha sitting up in one of the kitchen chairs, reading something on a tablet.

“What’re you doing up?” Steve asked, pulling out a few packs of ramen and setting water down to boil.

“Same thing you are.” She muttered, obviously caught up in whatever she was reading.

“Did you see Tony and Mara come up? He smells like a playground.” Nat laughed and looked up at him.

“ I saw Tony. Mara didn’t come up.” Interesting. Steve put the noodles in the boiling water and bounced on the balls of his feet as he waited for them to be done. It didn’t take long, and he moved them off the burner and put in the flavour.

“I’ll be right back. Don’t let Tony pass up eating.” Natasha mock saluted him, and he went over to the elevator. He figured she’d be up on the roof.

* * *

“What’s your death tradition?” Mara asked, laying on her back in he middle of the roof deck. Steve sat down next to her. She was filthy and looked exhausted.

“What?” Steve asked, unsure if he’d heard correctly.

“What do you do when someone dies?” It was a weird question, but then again Mara was a child-it was easy to forget, but she was a child in a new world and had more than a few questions.

“ I mostly depends on religion, I guess. Some people get cremated, and their ashes and put in a ern or buried or spread out somewhere, some people get buried.” Mara looked over at his and wrinkled her nose.

“ Why would you want to be buried?” She asked, looking back up at the sky. “It sounds awful. But being burned up sounds awful too. You guys are weird.”

Steve couldn't help but laugh a little. “ Why are we weird? What do your people do with their dead?” he couldn’t help but be curious.

“ We send..sent them off in the direction of their favourite place, or took them to a nebula. We send them off in a small capsule so they can keep traveling and seeing and doing and being all the things that made them beautiful.” Mara sat up, hugging her knees to her chest. “And when they’re nothing but bones, the capsule disintegrates, and the dust floats around and gets collected into gas clouds and stuff like that.” She looked over at Steve, resting her head on her knees. “ It’s nice. Everything goes full circle.”

“That is nice,” Steve agreed, nodding. It stayed quiet for a moment before he stood, and held a hand out to Mara. “ You should get to bed. Take a shower, eat something maybe. You’ll need your strength.” Mara laughed and rolled her eyes, but took Steve’s hand to stand.

“ Yeah. I guess I should.” She said quietly, looking out at the sky. “It’s almost done,” She added softly. She hadn’t let go of Steve’s hand.

“That’s good. You and Tony work well together.”

Mara nodded. “ He’s smart. We could have used people like him back home. Maybe things would have gone differently.” she didn’t say anything more. Mara let go of Steve’s hand and turned to exit the roof, leaving him there with a sour sting of sadness.

Tony was asleep when he got upstairs, so Steve went back to the kitchen to eat his noodles and read his book and try to figure out what to do about Mara. It was obvious that she'd be staying long term. It was also obvious that there was no way Fury didn’t know about her. there was no way in hell. The only thing he had left to figure out was why he hadn’t done anything yet.

* * *

It took almost a week, but they were nearly finished putting the thing together. Tony was quite proud of it, even though he still didn’t completely understand how it was going to work. They used a vibranium infused titanium alloy, and were just about ready for take off. He was getting ready to leave the lab for the night when he heard the clinking from behind the bar. He was the only one down there, Mara had left forever ago and Bruce hadn’t even come down since the day before. He pulled on a random gauntlet he’d been working on for pleasure, just in case, and walked over to the bar.

He didn’t expect to see Mara laying on the floor, an empty bottle in both hands.

“This stuff’s weak.” She said looking up at him. “And your music is horrible.” Tony was at a loss for words. He was supposed to be a responsible adult, but instead the nine year old got wasted on his watch.

“ What are you doing?” He asked, taking off the gauntlet and taking the bottles away from her. “What are you talking about weak?” Mara giggled and leaned forward, using him so she could stand up.

“ My commander used t’give me stuff t’make me sleep.” She said, swaying so much Tony figured it’d be better to just carry her. He walked over to the elevator and sighed. great. This was great. Maybe there was a way Steve wouldn’t find out…

“He’s gonna find out-that guy is all important, acts a lot like my friend...my friend Iaedalan(e-da-lane). He was bigger than all the other soldiers but wouldn't harm a fly.Couldn’t ever hurt anybody, let alone kill anybody, no matter who they were” She sighed, and traced the Arc Reactor with a finger.

“ It that right?” Tony asked, stepping off the elevator and onto the common floor.

“Yeah. Maybe I’ll see him soon.” Tony paused. It was later than he thought. Nobody was up, and he was glad for it as he set Mara down on the couch and went to get her a glass of water.

“ I thought you said they’re all dead.” Tony said, quietly. Mara nodded and took the water from him.

“They are.”

“Then how are you going to see him? You’re just fine. I think you’ve even grown a few inches.” He smiled and ruffled her hair. He’d gotten used to having her around. He’d grown sort of attached in all honestly. She even had him seriously thinking if the whole Fatherhood deal would be so bad. Steve wanted a kid, Tony knew that for sure, but he’d always been...reluctant to even talk about it.

“Well someone’s gotta sit inside.”

Tony forgot to breathe for a second.

There had to be something he could do.

“No, no. You said we’d control it remotely.” he hissed, panicking. A slow, lazy feeling came over him, and that just made him angry. “Get out of my head, I’m not gonna let you just-just do that.”

“Do what?” Mara asked, looking dazed.

“Just go off on a suicide mission! You’re just a  kid”

“It’s my responsibility.” Mara said, looking away. “I should have tried harder, I not...I’m not gonna let Earth end the way my home did. S’not fair.”

“You know what’s not fair? You being all fat headed and guilty. You’re not going to do that, you don’t want to trust me, it’s-”

“It’s dark and cold and lonely.” Mara interrupted, standing shakily and stumbling a little as she made his way over to him. “But it’s also living and expanding and wonderful, and I don’t mind not coming back down if I get to go up one more time.” Tony stared down at her, at a loss for words.

“Yeah? Well I do. Go to bed.”

“It was my plan from the beginning, Tony.” She said quietly, Tony swallowed hard.

“What, to kill yourself?” Tony asked, unintentionally raising his voice.

“To kill them. No matter what it takes.”

“ You can’t just do that, you can’t just-”

“Do what you did?” Mara asked, crossing her arms. “I read the files. I know what happened.”

“How’d you get into them?” Tony asked, deciding to be angry rather than upset.

“Let’s just say I know my way around artificial intelligence.” She paused. “ You’re not going to tell anybody about this.” She said quietly, looking down at her hands. Tony couldn’t for the life of him find the words he needed to persuade her otherwise. Maybe Steve could. Or Bruce or Clint or Thor or Natasha, one of them had to be able to do it.  

“ Like hell I won’t-” Mara stepped forward and put a hand on his forehead.

“You’re not going to tell anybody about this.” She said again, holding back tears.

“No,” Tony said, nodding. “You’re right. I wont. It’s your decision.” He turned adn left, and Mara sat back down on the floor, swallowing back her tears. She wouldn’t cry. She didn’t get to cry. This was her fault, all of it, and she wasn’t going to let anyone else die because she was a coward.

She was going to redeem herself.

****  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



End file.
